Planning Suburban America

In 2021 Governor Galvin Newsom singed a law ending single-family zoning in the state of California, a remarkable departure for the state of California, which had pioneered automobile-centric suburban development. This course aims to contextualize contemporary concerns about the suburb. Life outside of the urban core had often been seen as dangerous and uncivilized. But, by the middle of the 20th century, homogenous, middle class suburban households were often depicted as quintessentially American bulwarks against communism. This course will engage with debates over whether that transformation was a natural result of technological innovation or a contingent product of public policy and white flight. It will then consider how suburban planning has impacted popular culture, ecology, race, politics, national identity, and even foreign policy.